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Record year for home sales in Toronto amid surging prices

Click to play video: 'Price of a home in Toronto jumps nearly 10 per cent'
Price of a home in Toronto jumps nearly 10 per cent
WATCH: In Toronto, the price of a home is up nearly 10 per cent year-over-year. As Mike Drolet reports, it means bigger debt loads and higher risk – Jan 6, 2016

TORONTO – The Toronto Real Estate Board says that 2015 was a record sales year for its members. The number of sales last year through the city’s realtors totalled 101,299 — up 9.2 per cent from 2014.

It says the Toronto-area had 4,945 residential sales last month, the second-highest on record for a December.

The 2015 average selling price for homes of all sort — including condos and detached houses — was $622,217, up 9.8 per cent from the previous year.

MORE: Ottawa tightens mortgage rules to cool off red-hot Vancouver, Toronto

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The Greater Toronto Area and other parts of southern Ontario have experienced stronger demand than most Canadian markets — outdone only by parts of British Columbia in the Greater Vancouver and Lower Mainland areas.

The Toronto Real Estate Board says sales in its area would have been even higher than they were if there had been more properties available and there’s still pent-up demand that will carry over into this year.

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“TREB will release its official 2016 outlook later in January, but suffice to say that the demand for ownership housing is expected to remain very strong in 2016,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis.

The group says it will release an outlook for 2016 on Jan. 18.

WATCH: From Sunday, Dec. 13, Finance Minister Bill Morneau talks to Tom Clark about housing affordability. 

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